A Shared Memory
by dominanttuba
Summary: "Harry, after he was attacked by Nagini, you went up to him. You swore you hated him, that you would have killed him given the chance. So why did you go up to be with him as he died...?"


It had been a few days since Voldemort's end.

The students and families that had survived the battle were slowly trickling away and returning home, until it was only a few who stayed behind.

The Weasely's had gone that morning - Fred's funeral was to be the following evening, and so they had all returned to the Burrow, leaving Harry, Hermione, and the staff to, quite literally, pick up the pieces.

That evening, after dinner, Harry and Hermione decided to take a walk about the grounds, figuring it would most likely be their last chance to do so for a long while.

They mostly walked in silence, and it wasn't until they had reached the Ash tree by the lake that Hermione spoke up.

"Harry,"

"Yes?"

"I'd been wondering about something."

"What's that?"

She bit her lip and waited a moment before responding. "Well, during the battle, when we went to the Shrieking Shack to find Voldemort , but found Snape instead…"

Harry thought he knew where this was going - he hadn't fully explained what he had seen in Snape's memories. All anyone knew was what he had said during his final face-off with Voldemort.

"After he was attacked by Nagini, you went up to him. You swore you hated him, that you would have killed him given the chance. So why did you go up to be with him as he… died...?"

Harry looked out over the lake as he formulated his answer. He knew he shouldn't be surprised that Hermione thought to ask that. The problem was, he wasn't even entirely sure what had made him approach the man he had despised more than any other…

"Well, to be honest Hermione, I don't rightly know, and I've been wondering the same thing."

She gave him her 'that's not good enough' look.

Harry sighed. "Maybe it was because - like you said - that I wanted so badly for him to be dead that … well, I guess I needed to make sure it was really going to happen. Maybe it was because I was so shocked that Voldemort would have done that even to his self-proclaimed most loyal follower. Maybe it was because he saved my life so many times before that I just couldn't walk away - you know they say a special bond is made between wizards when that happens - a life debt. Maybe that was what drew me towards him."

Hermione digested this, but wasn't convinced. Harry was still looking out over the lake, still scrunching his brows.

"Do you think it was any of those things?" She asked him.

Harry looked at her. "I really don't know what it was Hermione. But, no, I don't think it was any of those things…"

He sat down and leaned against the tree trunk and she did the same, and he explained from there.

"When Voldemort apparated away, I entered the room because I had to see what he had done - I couldn't see everything from my angle. But when I saw that he was still alive, still breathing, it was like something drew me to him. I wasn't physically being pushed there - I went of my own will - but I knew I had to be with him. When I got to him, we made eye contact, and for a split second his mind was open to me; he'd let his barriers go. I could enter his mind, or, maybe he let me in… I don't know. Anyway, what I saw at first made no sense - it seemed random. But now I know…

What I saw was a quick blur, of black and red and light blue, and I heard screaming. Terrible wails of pain and sorrow. I- I didn't have time to think about it then, because he began speaking to me, giving me his memories, but now, I know what it was."

He looked to Hermione, who was watching him intently, and continued.

"It was true what I said to Voldemort - Snape loved my Mum. If there was something more than love, he probably would have felt that too. They met as children, before Hogwarts. They were best friends through most of school until he fell into his Slytherin group and made an awful mistake for which she apparently never forgave him. But he never stopped loving her, even when she fell for and married my dad.

Snape relayed the prophecy to Voldemort without knowing that they were expecting me or that the prophecy could therefore refer to me. When he found out, the only person he could turn to was Dumbledore. He begged him, literally begged him, to protect all of us, just for the sake of ensuring Voldemort did no harm to her."

By now, both Harry and Hermione had tears in their eyes.

"Obviously, that didn't work. No one expected Pettigrew to be the Secret Keeper…

Anyway, his memories were kind of jumbled - mostly chronological, but with a few episodes inserted in odd places - he clearly hadn't prepped the memories beforehand, they just came out when he saw me. One story I kept seeing bits of was at the house in Godric's Hollow, the night my parents died. He came there, not long after, I think. He found my father first, but he was looking for her. Eventually he came into my room and saw her...

He didn't just cry for her Hermione, he wept and wailed and - and screamed. Screamed with me…

"It was that image that I saw when I first met his eyes last night - him holding her and the both of us crying. I think it always connected us. We'd met before I came here - long before. And he didn't like me because looked like my father, who had stolen the one he loved, but also because I was a constant reminder of the night he lost everything. The worst experience of our lives was the same and we lived through it together.

I think that was what drew me to him that night. Somewhere in my mind, seventeen years later, I remembered what we had in common. And I think he did too, even though we'd both forgotten it long ago. We always shared that, always."


End file.
